Science project leads to bomb scare, lockdown at Mount Prospect high school

September 25, 2013|By Sally Ho, Chicago Tribune reporter

An extra-credit science experiment left outside a Mount Prospect high school Wednesday prompted a campus lockdown and a county bomb squad investigation, district officials said.

About 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, a student found and reported a "suspicious device" outside the building on the east side of the Prospect High School campus at 801 W. Kensington Road, according to Venetia Miles, spokeswoman for Township High School District 214.

"The student did the right thing," Miles said.

Mount Prospect police were called, and the school was put on a "soft lockdown" — with classes and activities resuming inside but the building doors being locked — for about an hour, Miles said.

After an initial assessment, the Cook County Sheriff's Office bomb squad was also called to the scene and determined there was no threat, officials said.

After interviewing a student whose car in the school parking lot contained a similar device, Mount Prospect officers eventually learned both were science experiments, said Mount Prospect police Officer Greg Sill. The teacher who assigned the project also confirmed it was not dangerous, he said.